Streak's End No Big Deal

Baltimore's clubhouse was a toxic place Wednesday night, with Albert Belle cursing reporters even as some teammates criticized him behind his back.

Over in the Marlins' clubhouse, players dressed, exchanged small talk and reflected upon the confidence derived from a seven-game winning streak.

To an untrained eye, it might have been difficult to believe Baltimore had been the victor, defeating the Marlins 4-2 at Pro Player Stadium to snap the home team's seven-game winning streak.

"You don't feel bad about a game like this," manager John Boles said, "because we played well. We had quality at-bats. We just didn't get line drives to fall. It was a great series for us. We'll take two out of three."

The Marlins won two of three from the Orioles and will have a day off today before facing the York Yankees in three games Friday through Sunday at Pro Player before crowds expected to top 40,000, many fans donned in Yankee caps.

While relaxing today, the Marlins can take some comfort in knowing they still have baseball's best interleague record (25-12) over three seasons, including a 7-2 mark against the Orioles. The Marlins are 17-15 since May 7 and have a better record (23-37) than the $84 million Orioles (22-36).

"Right now they're just another team," Aven said when asked if the Marlins would be especially stoked to face the Yankees. "We're not going to be intimidated. We just go out there and have fun, play hard."

The mood in the opposing clubhouse was quite the opposite Wednesday, the tension level surrounding the underachieving Orioles seemingly making it impossible for them to enjoy something so small as one win over the Marlins.

They did it on the strength of solo home runs by former Marlin Jeff Conine and B.J. Surhoff and Brady Anderson's two-run triple.

All the runs came against knuckleballer Dennis Springer, who surrendered nine hits (four for extra bases) in seven innings after allowing only seven singles in a complete-game shutout at Tampa Bay on Friday.

"Not anything special," Springer (2-7) said of his performance. "After I got behind hitters, those were the pitches that really hurt me."

Aven hit a leadoff triple in the fourth inning and scored on Tim Hyers' line drive off the glove of pitcher Scott Erickson (2-8) to make it a 3-2 game.

But Hyers was out on the play, and Preston Wilson followed with another liner up the middle, this one stabbled by Erickson. It was that kind of night for the Marlins and especially Cliff Floyd, who hit liners directly at Orioles in his last two at-bats.

Surhoff's towering two-out home run on a 3-0 fastball in the seventh inning gave the Orioles a 4-2 lead. Springer knew that Surhoff would be swinging. He didn't plan to leave the waist-high pitch over the middle, but did just that.

Conine erased a 1-0 Marlins lead with a his leadoff homer on an 0-1 pitch in the second inning. Conine, who received a standing ovation from at least half of those in attendance, has batted .354 with nine doubles, five home runs and 19 RBI in his past 33 games.

"I've done fairly well off knuckleballers," said Conine, who has two home runs in 13 career at-bats against Springer "You know you're not going to get overpowered by one. You just kind of wait for it to stop moving and hit it."

Conine lives in Weston in the offseason and left 20 passes for friends.

The crowd also derived some satisfaction from watching Belle's blatant lack of hustle prevent him from reaching first base on a high throw by third baseman Mike Lowell with two out in the ninth inning.

After a short dugout argument with manager Ray Miller, Belle was replaced in the bottom of the ninth by Rich Amaral. When reporters waited near his locker afterward, Belle muttered a few obscenities and told them to get away.